Editing Amstrad PCW (section)

==Development and launch==
In 1984, [[Tandy Corporation]] executive Steve Leininger, designer of the [[TRS-80 Model I]], admitted that "as an industry we haven't found any compelling reason to buy a computer for the home" other than for [[word processing]].<ref name="needle19840716">{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yS4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA66 | title=Q&A: Steve Leininger | work=InfoWorld | date=1984-07-16 | access-date=1 January 2015 | author=Needle, David | pages=66}}</ref> [[Amstrad]]'s founder [[Alan Sugar]] realised that most computers in the [[United Kingdom]] were used for word processing at home,<ref name="PalmerEtAlTimeAndTech" /> and  allegedly sketched an outline design for a low cost replacement for [[typewriter]]s during a flight to the Far East. This design featured a single "box" containing all the components, including a [[page orientation|portrait-oriented]] display,<ref name="LaingDigitalRetroPCW" /> which would be more convenient for displaying documents than the usual landscape orientation.<ref>{{cite book
|last=Leachtenauer|first=J.C.|title=Electronic image display|publisher=SPIE Press|year=2004|pages=55
|chapter=Physical Display Quality Measures|isbn=0-8194-4420-0
|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OGPVA6Z3PvUC&q=portrait+monitor&pg=PA55|access-date=2009-05-02
}}</ref> However the portrait display was quickly eliminated because it would have been too expensive, and the printer also became a separate unit.<ref name="LaingDigitalRetroPCW" /> To reduce the cost of the printer, Amstrad commissioned an [[ASIC]] (custom circuit) from MEJ Electronics, which had developed the hardware for Amstrad's earlier [[Amstrad CPC|CPC-464]]. Two other veterans of the CPC-464's creation played important roles, with Roland Perry<!-- **** do not w-link - WP has an article on an Aussie writer of the same name **** --> managing the PCW project and [[Locomotive Software]] producing the [[Locoscript]] word processing program and other software. The [[CP/M]] [[operating system]] was added at the last minute.<ref name="LaingDigitalRetroPCW" />  During development the PCW 8256 / 8512 project was code-named "Joyce" after Sugar's secretary.<ref name="Rohrer2007Nostalgia" />

For the launch the product name "Zircon" was jointly suggested by MEJ Electronics and Locomotive Software, as both companies had been [[Corporate spin-off|spun off]] from [[Data Recall]], which had produced a word processing system called "[[Data Recall Diamond|Diamond]]" in the 1970s. Sugar, preferring a more descriptive name, suggested "WPC" standing for "Word Processing Computer", but Perry pointed out that this invited jokes about Women Police Constables. Sugar reshuffled the initials and the product was launched as the "Personal Computer Word-processor", abbreviated to "PCW".<ref name="LaingDigitalRetroPCW" /> The advertising campaign featured trucks unloading typewriters to form huge scrap heaps, with the slogan "It's more than a word processor for less than most typewriters".<ref name="TedlowJonesMassMarketing" /> In Britain the system was initially sold exclusively through [[Dixons (UK)|Dixons]], whose chairman shared Sugar's dream that computers would cease to be exclusive products for the technologically adept and would become consumer products.<ref name="TedlowJonesMassMarketing" />